Buyback Scorecard The Risk in No-Risk Stock BuybacksBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 299 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent or more than $1 billion of their shares from December 31, 2013 to December 31, 2015. The companies are ranked according to their return on investment from these repurchases. As calculated by Fortuna Advisors, a New York City-based consultancy that compiled the data for Institutional Investor, buyback ROI measures the overall rate of return of buybacks, based on the internal rate of return of the cash flows associated with them. Buyback strategy tracks the performance of the underlying stock in terms of annualized total shareholder return. Once Fortuna determines buyback ROI and buyback strategy, buyback effectiveness can then be calculated as simply the difference between the two, determined as compounded return.

How the S&P 500 Stack Up as Stock Repurchasers 1—50 | 51—100 | 101—150 | 151—200 | 201—250 | 251—299
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$48,969	$3,699	9.2%	20.8%	-3.9%	16.3%
	Median		$24,408	$1,949	7.7%	20.1%	-3.6%	16.5%
101	The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.	Diversified Financials	45,052	4,024	8.9	15.6	-4.0	10.9
102	Xilinx	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	12,070	1,037	8.6	5.3	5.1	10.7
103	Nielsen Holdings	Commercial and Professional Services	16,965	1,133	6.7	9.6	0.7	10.4
104	Comcast Corp.	Media	138,023	11,001	8.0	13.7	-3.1	10.1
105	AutoNation	Retailing	6,600	725	11.0	11.8	-1.9	9.7
106	Chubb	Insurance	37,881	2,187	5.8	10.1	-1.0	9.0
107	Northern Trust Corp.	Diversified Financials	16,669	978	5.9	14.3	-4.7	9.0
108	Intel Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	162,570	14,567	9.0	21.9	-10.8	8.8
109	The Western Union Co.	Software and Services	9,050	1,009	11.2	7.0	1.5	8.6
110	Ecolab	Materials	33,777	1,184	3.5	7.6	0.9	8.6
111	Intuit	Software and Services	25,476	3,167	12.4	17.2	-7.4	8.5
112	Ametek	Capital Goods	12,748	681	5.3	7.3	1.1	8.5
113	The Boeing Co.	Capital Goods	96,873	12,752	13.2	7.8	0.6	8.4
114	Automatic Data Processing	Software and Services	39,073	2,372	6.1	15.8	-6.6	8.2
115	Autodesk	Software and Services	13,729	831	6.1	15.1	-6.0	8.2
116	Torchmark Corp.	Insurance	7,050	672	9.5	9.4	-1.1	8.2
117	Moody's Corp.	Diversified Financials	19,837	2,430	12.2	18.5	-8.9	8.0
118	Express Scripts Holding Co.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	59,113	9,993	16.9	14.5	-5.8	7.9
119	Abbott Laboratories	Healthcare Equipment and Services	66,993	4,432	6.6	11.8	-3.6	7.7
120	SunTrust Banks	Banks	21,832	1,137	5.2	12.0	-3.9	7.7
121	Rockwell Collins	Capital Goods	12,120	615	5.1	13.4	-5.0	7.6
122	Philip Morris International	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	136,199	3,881	2.8	4.5	2.8	7.5
123	McGraw Hill Financial	Diversified Financials	26,646	1,336	5.0	16.5	-7.9	7.4
124	3M Co.	Capital Goods	92,751	10,890	11.7	12.6	-4.9	7.0
125	The Coca-Cola Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	186,832	7,726	4.1	7.0	-0.1	6.9
126	Cameron International Corp.	Energy	12,078	1,987	16.5	7.1	-0.2	6.9
127	Honeywell International	Capital Goods	79,821	2,808	3.5	10.5	-3.3	6.8
128	TE Connectivity	Technology Hardware and Equipment	24,959	2,640	10.6	12.9	-5.3	6.8
129	Lam Research Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	12,580	777	6.2	20.7	-11.6	6.7
130	The PNC Financial Services Group	Banks	48,399	3,328	6.9	13.8	-6.3	6.6
131	Amphenol Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	16,100	788	4.9	14.7	-7.1	6.6
132	Gilead Sciences	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	145,833	14,451	9.9	22.8	-13.2	6.6
133	The Dow Chemical Co.	Materials	59,645	5,359	9.0	15.6	-7.9	6.4
134	Wells Fargo & Co.	Banks	277,661	18,111	6.5	15.2	-7.7	6.4
135	Pfizer	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	199,281	9,837	4.9	7.5	-1.1	6.3
136	FedEx Corp.	Transportation	41,064	5,993	14.6	8.6	-2.1	6.3
137	Patterson Cos.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	4,380	302	6.9	7.2	-1.5	5.6
138	LyondellBasell Industries N.V.	Materials	39,057	6,501	16.6	13.0	-6.6	5.6
139	BlackRock	Diversified Financials	56,546	2,675	4.7	9.3	-3.6	5.4
140	Marriott International	Consumer Services	17,218	3,427	19.9	27.6	-17.4	5.4
141	AT&T	Telecommunication Services	211,690	1,886	0.9	3.6	1.6	5.4
142	The Goldman Sachs Group	Diversified Financials	80,419	9,604	11.9	7.5	-2.1	5.3
143	United Continental Holdings	Transportation	21,362	1,545	7.2	28.4	-18.3	4.9
144	United Parcel Service	Transportation	85,685	5,397	6.3	4.7	0.0	4.6
145	Aon	Insurance	25,258	3,930	15.6	9.7	-4.6	4.6
146	Omnicom Group	Media	18,329	1,791	9.8	6.1	-1.4	4.6
147	Textron	Capital Goods	11,497	559	4.9	16.3	-10.2	4.4
148	Illinois Tool Works	Capital Goods	33,688	4,883	14.5	9.6	-4.8	4.4
149	CH Robinson Worldwide	Transportation	8,915	418	4.7	9.5	-4.8	4.3
150	Aflac	Insurance	25,562	2,525	9.9	-0.2	4.4	4.2
* Company has yet to report latest quarter. Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2013 to December 2015. Includes the 485 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2015. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.